Hooch is only formed after the exhaustion of feeding of the flour's sugars, when the culture is starting to slag--to go dormant. With some of my cultures, hooch will not form for almost two weeks, whereas some (more active) like the Carl's Orgeon trail will form hooch within a week or so. It really varies from culture to culture and on how thick or thin you are keeping your culture IMHE...

klown!You are the lucky one! Those of us who play with sourdough regularly... and multiple cultures... I'm sure have had hooch problems! I captured one yeast a few years ago... no matter how many times I washed it, fed it, nutured it, kept it warm and cozy... it refused to behave! It was an evil child who had to be sent away!!

I wish you continued success with no evil cultures in the future. It's sad when a good culture goes bad!

klown!You are the lucky one! Those of us who play with sourdough regularly... and multiple cultures... I'm sure have had hooch problems! I captured one yeast a few years ago... no matter how many times I washed it, fed it, nutured it, kept it warm and cozy... it refused to behave! It was an evil child who had to be sent away!!

I wish you continued success with no evil cultures in the future. It's sad when a good culture goes bad!

~sd

Well I've never tried to capture my own. My current culture is from sourdoughs international. It's the San Francisco culture. I grew up in the bay area, and the bread this stuff makes is very good. The only other culture I had before this one was an established starter that was captured from this area many years ago. It was given to me by a friend. Made really good bread, but not sour enough for my taste. This SF one I have is excellent!